Day 45: Cite de L’Espace

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Waking to discover that we slept in, and we had less than one hour to check out put us in a flat panic packing and dressing, loading the car etc.. Billy watched Spongebob Squarepants as we flung ourselves out the door. Goodbye Toulouse but on our way to Lyon, we spend the morning at the Cite de L’Espace. This is a huge park dedicated to all things to do with the earth, planets, universe and space exploration. The web site www.cite-espace.com gives a brilliant overview of the themes covered. We went through replicas of space shuttles, a planetarium, Imax 3D trips to Kennedy and the Russian space centers and saw the trials, developments and training of the Astronauts; next we traveled up into space and saw life on the shuttle…fascinating!! Billy spent hours on the playground of mini rockets and spaceships and tried to get the other kids to do what he yelled but, to his frustration, they didn’t understand so he ranked down from Commander in Chief to officer.

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As we head off to Lyon we cruise past a huge bushfire, so close we saw flames. It is a big problem, particularly if they block of the auto route for up to three hours. So we sped along, having pre-booked our hotel at Lyon. Driving speed has been up for interpretation; if you travel too slow you may as well get off, and there is always someone who wants to overpass you in a Audi, Merc, BMW or Gonzales (make of car no idea just bloody fast!!). And yes, we get pinged by a roadside gendarme speed gun doing 167km! OK pull over driver, driver’s license, international license and rental car papers etc…The scenarios pan through our minds…cost, demerits, how many more fines has the Peugeot if any, and how do we get going. The fine was $90E, and Will didn’t have this in this wallet so that usually means leave the car there for towing or get funds somehow. Will asked if we could go to the next service or exit to get some money and they said tentatively okay. We had to follow the police car a distance and as we reached the toll gates to leave the highway they gestured to us, gave back our paperwork and told us on with our journey!!! Now Will has the best driving in Europe story; we will all let him tell this one again because he was so lucky. We were all gob smacked and sweetly did a U’y and drive off on what ever the speed limit is supposed to be!!??? Now Will drives smartly by picking the fastest car on the autoroute and shadowing them to avoid getting pinged again.

yes, we get pinged by a roadside gendarme speed gun doing 167km!

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Our apartment greets us at 9.45pm; we would have been locked out at 10.00am, a night in the Peugeot is not possible because of our bags. We find the only restaurant open, have a lucky-dip meal with Will getting a huge plate of green beans, peas and cauliflower with salmon fillets. Kimmy wanted a cheese sandwich and got a huge slab of grilled ham!! Billy gets his chips and milk. The rule appears to be if like something keep the stats quo. Bravely we intend to continue the menu challenge.